I can’t seem to quit sugar. I have no self-control whatsoever. UGH. Back in 2013 I stopped drinking soda cold turkey. I’d been a Coke addict since I was really young, often drinking multiple cokes a day. Coke was my THING. All our Swedish friends learned fairly quickly to have Coke AND ice on hand when we were over, neither of which is really Swedish. I stopped drinking soda because I had read somewhere that the amount of sugar in soda if you drank one can a day was equivalent to 20 pounds a year. So it was WEIGHT LOSS that motivated me.
Nowadays, I drink some soda, but it’s at least Pepsi Max, which is sugar free, and I only have a couple of sips of it a day, if that. Mostly I drink water. Sometimes tomato juice on a weekend morning with breakfast, but I’ve cut out all other sodas and juices. It’s rare that I have any drinks with sugar in them. SO why can’t I stop EATING sugary sweets, chocolates, candies?
With sugar, it ought to be SHOTS and EXTREMITY AMPUTATION that should motivate me, and yet. I have a bag of Non-Stops (M&M-ish candies) in front of me right now and I just ate a couple of handfuls. After lunch and dinner, I crave something sweet. And often when watching TV in the evenings as well. It’s SUCH a bad habit, and such a major issue for someone who already has a diabetes diagnosis…even if I’ve been lucky so far. It’s not going to last forever if I don’t stop, and I am really struggling about it. Losing weight is equally hard. UGH. I don’t want to end up on Ozempic due to all the horrific side effects I’ve heard about. And I don’t want to end up having to take insulin shots, and I DEFINITELY don’t want to lose either or both of my feet. I don’t want to end up like my dad. I need a whack upside the head. Maybe writing this out will help.
GAH.
In other news, my knee is markedly improved, though it’s still very tight/stiff and I still can’t bend it under me all the way. I can straighten it completely now though, which I couldn’t do before the cortisone shot I got last week. And it doesn’t hurt all the time, like it did before, which is also very nice. My physiotherapist is supposed to call me at the end of July to see how things are. If she doesn’t feel it’s improved enough, she’ll be referring me further. I am still doing all the exercises she gave me, and I can tell that’s helped strengthen the muscles in my leg and around my knee as well.
I’m in the last stretch of summer-work-before-vacation. Pretty much everyone else at work is gone, and it’s awesome to be able to drive on the highway with no traffic in the mornings, and park close to the office entrance as the parking lot is mostly empty. One of my teammates has actually come back from her vacation (though she is taking a few more weeks later in August), but I’m not starting until August 5 by which time almost everyone will be back, asking me how my vacation was and expressing shock that I haven’t had mine yet.
Even though it’s been calmer, and some days nearly dead, workwise, there have still been plenty of things to do since I’m handling a bazillion translations and have been working on jobs that several teammates couldn’t finalize before they left. I hope that means most things will be done when I DO actually go on vacation and that my teammates who are back won’t be buried during the 3 weeks I am off. I don’t think 3 weeks will be enough, really, especially since we are traveling from the middle of the first week to the middle of the second week, but I’m very much looking forward to our trip, so there’s that. And I can always take some Fridays or another week later, or extra time around Christmas.
I just finished reading an EXCELLENT unpredictable book by an author I had never heard of (The Mars House by Natasha Pulley), and when I was done, I looked her up, and she’s written loads of books, so I’ve started another which, so far, is equally engaging, if totally different. Yay! Anders and I are halfway through season 3 of The Bear. I was super aggravated because we couldn’t find it, even though it was supposedly streaming on Disney+ and we’d already watched seasons 1 and 2 there last year. It was supposed to be available on July 19, but on Sunday (the 20th) it wasn’t showing. But as we were searching through Disney, I suddenly realized that EVERYTHING we were seeing was kid titles. And sure enough, Karin (who actually owns the account) checked and someone (she swears it wasn’t her) had changed our profile setting from 18+ to Junior Mode. Good one, mystery prankster!
Mood: addicted
Music: Howie Day—Be There